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The trigger lead comes from the metal plate behind where the flash tube would go, and it creates a strong current that ionizes the air between the current electrodes, allowing electricity to flow in the form of a spark.

Well... now I'm just stumped. What do you mean? You connect the third wire to that metal plate with some solder, and then connect that to a screw that's spaced evenly with the other two screws in a triangle pattern, all about less than a mm apart.

Actually markfh11q that third lead gives off a high voltage pulse which ionises the air.

The third wire goes between the two main wires without touching. Just move them back and forth between tests to work out how close the two main wires need to be for the spark to jump when the third wire ionises the air.

hotwired wrote:Actually markfh11q that third lead gives off a high voltage pulse which ionises the air.

Ahh... don't bust my balls over some technical term <I>here</I>. I actually didn't know what to call it because it's not really a complete circuit anyways, it's just giving off a strong + charge, stripping electrons from the air.

Also, the spacing needs to be really close for this to work right. It makes for a small spark, but it's a hot one.

EDIT:

And another thing I'd be interested in testing would be how to get dual sparks out of this method. I think it's possible but I'm not sure, I'd have to test.

I just connected everything and the spark doesn't jump. I have to touch the positive and negative wires together to get it to spark. Can I just have the positive and negative electrodes touching each other in the chamber and just have a switch on one of them?